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Done With Magic

by Ken Wright

" Listen. Below us. Above us. Inside us. Come. This is all there is."

- Terry Tempest Williams

Time to grow up. Now that I have lived long enough, observed widely enough and seen enough of the results of the many quaint, bewitching notions that soothed and comforted me for most of my life, it is time to shed those myths and superstitions.

I don't believe in that magic anymore. I'm done with fantasy. With dreaming. With following mirages born of hopes and schemes. I've learned, instead, that there is a real world that functions regardless of the ideas I might impose in its place; that there are ways of doing things that work, and ways that, no matter how many wishes are cast in their path, do not; that consequences follow our actions like a wake, no matter how much we rationalize away the ripples.

And I've learned that I have too long been placing my faith in mystical powers and forces that I believed guided us and dictated how we best should live. But don't.

No more. Now I believe only in things I, myself, test personally and verify experientially, and I'm done with anything that doesn't pass that muster.

I don't believe, for example, that "success" is the goal; I no longer believe in wealth, worth, titles or awards. Instead I believe in style, skill, resolve and honor, because they're tangible, doable and cannot be faked.

I don't believe in making a living; I believe in making a life.

I also now believe, again from experience, that getting old, despite its physical challenges, is really pretty cool. Even despite its inevitable ending. Because I believe in what the Universe so clearly says everywhere: Everything changes; nothing ends.

I now believe that, despite the government's repeated denials and claims of ignorance, that, yes, aliens really do live among us. For only a few months of the year, though, and for the rest of the time their space-station-sized second homes often stand empty, waiting, idling, while they're away, in outer space.

I believe that most real heroes are not celebrities.

Speaking of celebrities, I don't believe Barry Bonds. But that's just a hunch.

I also have a hunch that naming that car a "Hummer" was not just a Freudian slip.

I, of course, it almost goes without saying, don't believe that economic growth is good. I don't even believe that "growth is inevitable," no matter how much that incantation is chanted in the newspapers and county commissioners meetings and city council chambers.

I believe we can live differently.

And I believe we have to, because I believe Malthus had it right.

Unlike Machiavelli, whom I don't believe had it right.

I do believe Jesus had it right, however. And I don't believe that He was somehow mistaken or misquoted when he pointed out that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

I also believe that I, myself, will not get the chance to test that theory.

I do believe that although might might make wealth, it still doesn't make right.

And I still believe that while the so-called "global economy" may claim to have magically made the world "flat," sending jobs overseas isn't right, either.

I believe that plants, animals and rivers have rights equal with our own.

I also believe in the rights of unborn children - in fact, I believe we should respect those rights for seven generations ahead. Which pretty much casts a pall on plastics, nuclear power, land development and the aforementioned growth-based economy.

Speaking of children, I don't believe our already-born children - those young, eager, curious, seeking, learning little mammals in their most formative years - should be locked in big, bland boxes we call "schools" all day.

I don't believe skateboarding is a crime. But I believe the Animas-La Plata Project is.

I believe that in my lifetime I will see Glen Canyon restored to its wild and wonderful three-dimensional, redrock glory. I also believe this might take a miracle, but I didn't say I was against all magic.

I no longer believe recycling is going to save the world. Or that listening to NPR or joining an environmental group makes one an activist. I believe only action does.

And I don't believe you can ever say "I'm just doing my job."

I no longer believe we can magically fix the problems caused by what we've done by just doing it more, and doing more of it. I believe we have to live differently.

And I believe we can.

I believe we cannot because I believe in schemes, schedules, plans, programs or pogroms. I don't. I also don't believe in a sealed fate. I do, however, believe in abandon. And in adaptation. And in the ongoing revolution of evolution - because everything changes but nothing ends, forever and ever, amen.

And I believe in our human ability to create culture, from scratch if need be. And I do not believe that culture is created on TV, or in Congress or on Wall Street. I believe culture is created in individual choices.

I believe I have found the Weapons of Mass Reconstruction, and I believe they are in each and every individual choice, voice and action done with style, skill, resolve and honor.

And I believe that even though that doesn't take magic, it is still the most magical thing of all.

Ken Wright does literary magic tricks in Durango.